yojimbo,
Appreciate the effort in your response.
I am child of the internet in terms of my welding knowledge, and my experience comes solely from time in the garage. I may eventually begin to explore more in depth my curiosity regards welding.
I am open to any criticism that is clear and comes with potential solutions, like yours.
I do tend to create a longer weld leg at the start of the weld. To some degree it is purposely done, because I notice that, in general, especially with my early welds, those that did break under "testing", failed mostly at the start of the weld. My thought was that if I let the gun linger a little at the start it might address the issue. I did notice some gradual improvement regards the strength of the initial part of the bead with this method However, if I linger too long I suppose I am just piling up weld bead and, in fact, may be defeating my intention to create a stronger weld at the out set. As you mention, achieving proper travel speed only arrives after much practice. Not sure if the approach I describe is the best way to increase weld strength at the start of a bead, but right now it's all I gots.
I have been doing most of my recent welding at what I believe are spray arc transfer settings, and so I have not done much in the way of manipulation of the gun because I had heard that the spray transfer mode was such that weaving or anything other than just a stringer bead was tough to achieve, because of the amount of heat and speed of the weld. Nevertheless, in my initial welds I was practicing weave techniques.
One question I have is what does "whet out" mean. I have heard the phrase before, but admit I do not have a good understanding of what it means. Is it related to fusion? What are the signs of good whet out? How is it achieved? Also I believe that pre heat has helped my weld but I am just winging it there, as far as temps required for the thickness I am welding.
Anyway thanks for your insight.